The Life-Span

Perspective
Chapter 1: Development Psychology
 Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the discussion, the students must able to:
● identify the basic forces and recurring issues in
human development.
● explain the differences of developmental theories.
● identify the different things needed in doing a
developmental research.
1.1 The Life-Span
Perspective
Learning Goal 1: Discuss the
distinctive features of a life-span
perspective on development.
Domains in Human Development:
1.Physical Domain Includes:
a. Height
b. Weight
c. Fine and gross motor skills
d. Brain development
e. Puberty
f. Sexual health
g. Fertility and menopause
h. Changes in our senses
i. Primary and secondary development
Domains in Human Development:
2.Cognitive Domain Includes:
• Language development
• Thinking (e.g., logical thinking, abstract reasoning)
• Learning and understanding
• Memory abilities
• Moral reasoning
• Practical intelligence
• Wisdom
Domains in Human Development:
● Psychosocial Domain Includes:
○ Psychological and social development
○ Temperament and attachment
○ Emotions
○ Personality
○ Self-esteem
○ Relationships
○ Identity development
○ Dating, romance, cohabitation, marriage, and having children
○ Finding work or a career
○ Caregiving, retirement, coping with losses, and death and dying
The Life-Span Perspective
● Development. The pattern of change that begins at conception
and continues through the life-span. Most development
involves growth, although it also includes decline brought on
by aging and dying.
● Life-span perspective.The perspective that development is
lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic,
multidisciplinary, and contextual; involves growth,
maintenance, and regulation; and is constructed through
biological, sociocultural, and individual factors working
together
Baltes’ Lifespan Perspective
• Lifespan development: the biological, cognitive,
and psychosocial changes and constancies that
occur throughout the entire course of life

• Lifespan Perspective: an approach to studying

lifespan development attributed to Paul Baltes, a
German psychologist and leading expert on
lifespan development and aging
Baltes’ Lifespan Perspective: Key Principles

● Development occurs across one’s entire life or is lifelong

● Development is multidimensional
● Development is multidirectional and results in gains and
losses throughout life
● Development is plastic, meaning that characteristics are
malleable or changeable
● Development is influenced by contextual and socio-
cultural influences
● Development is multidisciplinary
Development is Lifelong

Development occurs across one’s entire life or is lifelong

• Development encompasses the entire lifespan, from conception to
death
• Traditional view:
• focused on conception to adolescence and the gradual
decline in old age
• It was believed that the five or six decades after adolescence
yielded little to no developmental change at all
• Current view: changes in development can occur later in life,
without having been established at birth
Development is Multidimensional

Development is multidimensional
• A complex interaction of biological, cognitive, and
socioemotional changes influence development
across the lifespan
• Example of puberty in adolescence:
• Physiological/physical
• Cognitive
• Emotional and social
Development is Multidirectional
Development is multidirectional and results in gains and losses
throughout life

• We have the capacity for both an increase and decrease in the

efficacy of certain traits over the course of the lifespan
• Selective optimization with compensation: prioritizing and improving
the efficacy of particular functions, thereby reducing the adaptive
capacity of other functions
• Example:
• Childhood: difficulty with regulating emotions and impulsive
actions
• Adolescence: increased ability to regulate emotions and
impulses, but they may sacrifice spontaneity, creativity, or fast
responding
Development is Plastic
Development is plastic, meaning that characteristics are malleable
or changeable
• The nature of human development is more pluralistic than
originally thought; there is no single pathway in development
• Consider the example of cognitive decline in aging
• Dimensions of cognitive decline are partially reversible
because the brain retains the lifelong capacity for plasticity
and reorganization of cortical tissue
• Research suggests that cognitive function, such as memory,
can be improved in mature adults with age-related
cognitive decline by using brain plasticity-based training
methods
Development is Contextual
Development is influenced by contextual and socio-
cultural influences
• Development varies from person to person,
depending on factors such as a person’s biology,
family, school, church, profession, nationality, and
ethnicity
• Three types of contextual influences operate across
the lifespan:
• normative age-graded influences
• normative history-graded influences
• nonnormative influences
1. Normative Age-Graded Influences
• Biological and environmental factors that have a
strong correlation with chronological age, such as
puberty or menopause
• Age-based social practices such as beginning school
or entering retirement
• Influences that are similar for individuals in a
particular age group.
2. Normative History-Graded Influences
• Associated with a specific time period that defines the
broader environmental and cultural context in which an
individual develops
• Development and identity are influenced by historical
events that people experience. Example: war
3. Nonnormative Influences
• unusual occurrences that have a major impact on the lives
of individual people.
• The unique experiences of an individual, whether
biological or environmental, that shape the development
process
• Examples of nonnormative influences:
• Going through a divorce
Development is Multidisciplinary
● Development is Multidisciplinary
● Any single discipline’s account of development across the lifespan would
not be able to express all aspects of this theoretical framework.

● Many disciplines are able to contribute important concepts that integrate

knowledge, which may ultimately result in the formation of a new and
enriched understanding of development across the lifespan.
SOME CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS

Sociocultural Contexts and Diversity

● culture.The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other
products of a group that are passed on from generation to
generation.
● cross-cultural studies. Comparison of one culture with
one or more other cultures. These provide information
about the degree to which development is similar, or
universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is
culture-specific.
SOME CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS

Sociocultural Contexts and Diversity

● ethnicity. A characteristic based on cultural heritage,
nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language.
● socioeconomic status (SES). Refers to the grouping of
people with similar occupational, educational, and
economic characteristics.
● gender. The characteristics of people as males or females.
 The Nature of
1.2

Development
In this section, we will explore what is
meant by developmental processes and
periods, as well

as variations in the way age is

conceptualized.
BIOLOGICAL, COGNITIVE, AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL
PROCESSES
● biological processes. Changes in an individual’s
physical nature.
● cognitive processes. Changes in an individual’s
thought, intelligence, and language.
● socioemotional processes. Changes in an individual’s
interpersonal relationships, emotions, and personality.
The connection across biological, cognitive, and
socioemotional processes more obvious than in two rapidly
emerging fields:
• developmental cognitive neuroscience, which explores links
between development, cognitive processes, and the brain
(Bell & others, 2018; Nyberg, Pudas, & Lundquist, 2017).
• developmental social neuroscience, which examines
connections between socioemotional processes,
development, and the brain (Silvers & others, 2017; Sullivan
& Wilson, 2018).
PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT
A developmental period refers to a time frame in a person’s life that is
characterized by certain features.
Four Ages
Life-span developmentalists who focus on adult
development and aging increasingly describe life-span
development in terms of four “ages”
● First age: Childhood and adolescence
● Second age: Prime adulthood, ages 20 through 59
● Third age: Approximately 60 to 79 years of age
● Fourth age: Approximately 80 years and older
Three Developmental Patterns of Aging
K. Warner Schaie (2016a, b) recently described three different
developmental patterns that provide a portrait of how aging can
encompass individual variations:
● Normal aging
● Pathological aging
● Successful aging
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AGE
1.Age and Happiness
2.Conceptions of Age
● Chronological age is the number of years that have elapsed
since birth.
● Biological age is a person’s age in terms of biological health.
● Psychological age is an individual’s adaptive capacities
compared with those of other individuals of the same
chronological age.
● Social age refers to connectedness with others and the social
roles individuals adopt.
DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES

1. Nature versus Nurture Debate

• Nature: Biology and genetics
• Nurture: Environment
2.stability-change issue, which involves the degree to which
early traits and characteristics persist through life or change.
3. continuity-discontinuity issue Debate about the extent to
which development involves gradual, cumulative change
(continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).
1.3 Theories of
Development
● scientific method. An approach that can be used to obtain
accurate information. It includes the following steps: (1)
conceptualize the problem, (2) collect data, (3) draw conclusions,
and (4) revise research conclusions and theory.
● theory An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to
explain phenomena and facilitate predictions.
● hypotheses Specific assumptions and predictions that can be
tested to determine their accuracy.
THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
A.PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
1. Freud’s Psychosexual stages
2. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
B.COGNITIVE THEORIES
1. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory
2. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

C. BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES

1. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

2. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

D. ETHOLOGICAL THEORY

E. ECOLOGICAL THEORY

1. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory

1. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES

FREUD’S THEORY- describe development as primarily unconscious (beyond

awareness) and heavily colored by emotion.
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
COGNITIVE
THEORIES

1.Piaget’s
Cognitive
Developmental
Theory
 ● cognitive-stage theory- Piaget’s theory that children’s cognitive development
advances in a series of four stages involving qualitatively distinct types of mental
operations.
● Organization- Piaget’s term for the creation of categories or systems of
knowledge.
● Schemes- Piaget’s term for organized patterns of thought and behavior used in
particular situations.
● Adaptation is Piaget’s term for how children handle new information in light of
what they already know. Adaptation occurs through two complementary
processes:
(1) assimilation, taking in new information and incorporating it into existing
cognitive structures, and
(2) accommodation, adjusting one’s cognitive structures to fit the new
information.
Equilibration- Piaget’s term for the tendency to seek a stable balance among
cognitive elements; achieved through a balance between assimilation and
accommodation.
COGNITIVE THEORIES

2. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory- is a sociocultural

cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction
guide cognitive development.
● zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky’s term for the
difference between what a child can do alone and what the child
can do with help.
● Scaffolding. Temporary support to help a child master a task.
3.Information-processing theory.Emphasizes that individuals
manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. Central to
this theory are the processes of memory and thinking.
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES
1.Skinner’s Operant Conditioning According to B. F. Skinner (1904–1990),
through operant conditioning the consequences of a behavior produce changes in
the probability of the behavior’s occurrence. A behavior followed by a rewarding
stimulus is more likely to recur, whereas a behavior followed by a punishing
stimulus is less likely to recur.
● operant conditioning- Learning based on association of behavior with its
consequences.
● Reinforcement. The process by which a behavior is strengthened, increasing
the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.
● Punishment. The process by which a behavior is weakened, decreasing the
likelihood of repetition.
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORIES

2. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory holds that behavior, environment, and

cognition are the key factors in development.
● self-efficacy-Sense of one’s capability to master challenges and
achieve goals.
● social learning theory- Theory that behaviors are learned by
observing and imitating models. Also called social cognitive theory.
● reciprocal determinism- Bandura’s term for bidirectional forces that
affect development.
● observational learning-Learning through watching the behavior of
others.
ETHOLOGICAL THEORY

● Ethology stresses that behavior is strongly influenced

by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized
by critical or sensitive periods.
● These are specific time frames during which,
according to ethologists, the presence or absence of
certain experiences has a long-lasting influence on
individuals
ECOLOGICAL THEORY
While ethological theory stresses biological factors, ecological
theory emphasizes environmental factors.

1.Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory -Bronfenbrenner’s

environmental systems theory that focuses on five
environmental systems:
● Microsystem
● Mesosystem
● Exosystem
● macrosystem and
● chronosystem
A COMPARISON OF THEORIES AND ISSUES IN LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT
Research on
Life-Span
Development
METHODS FOR COLLECTING DATA

1. Observation
• Naturalistic observation means observing behavior in real-world settings,
making no effort to manipulate or control the situation.
2. Survey and Interview
3. Standardized Test. A standardized test has uniform procedures
for administration and scoring.
4. Case Study. A case study is an in-depth look at a single individual.
5. Physiological Measures
RESEARCH DESIGNS

• Descriptive studies: objective to describe phenomena

• Main types: observation, case studies, surveys, and
content analysis
• Correlational research: formally test whether a relationship
exists between two or more variables
• Experimental research: randomly assign people to different
conditions, use hypothesis testing to make inferences about
how these conditions affect behavior
• Explanatory studies: designed to answer the question
“why”
• Evaluation research: designed to assess the effectiveness of
policies or programs
• Validity: refers to accuracy of measurement
• Reliability: refers to consistency of measurement
TIME SPAN OF RESEARCH
● cross-sectional approach A research strategy in which
individuals of different ages are compared at one time.
● Longitudinal approach A research strategy in which the
same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually
several years or more.
● cohort effects Characteristics determined by a person’s
time of birth, era, or generation rather than the person’s
actual age.
CONDUCTING ETHICAL RESEARCH

APA’s guidelines address four important issues:

1. Informed consent.
2. Confidentiality
3. Debriefing
4. Deception
 MINIMIZING BIAS
1.Gender Bias. For most of its existence, our society has had a
strong gender bias, a preconceived notion about the abilities of
women and men that prevented individuals from pursuing their
own interests and achieving their potential
2. Cultural and Ethnic Bias. Today there is a growing realization
that research on lifespan development needs to include more
people from diverse ethnic group.
● ethnic gloss Using an ethnic label such as African
American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an
ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is.
 REFERENCE:

John W. Santrock (2019) Life-Span Development Seventeenth

Edition
Papalia, D. & Martorell, G. (2021) Experience Human Development,
14th Edition, McGraw-Hill Education